Against A Sea Of Troubles
by Maribor
Summary: A dark tale of Data's life in the Mirror Universe. Isolated beneath the ruins of Omicron Theta with his ineffectual father and innately cruel mother his is a life shaped by monotony, fear, pain and impotent rage. In the end, he sees but one way out.
1. Chapter 1

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I know that must instill a great deal of comfort in you Dear Reader but it's just something I felt best to put out there at the beginning. Long story short it's been 8 years and I as a viewer still can't accept the idea of Data being dead. So I figured since the Mirror Universe has a spare of everything, why not grab him from there? Or at the very least see what he's up to. So, that's where we begin, Data, his Dad and his Mum, mirror universe. Since I'm unclear of a great deal of the mechanics and politics of the MU, I'm going with what I've pieced together from the original series as well as one episode of DS9. Guess that's it, Paramount owns all, I own nothing. The quote is from Frankenstein and the song is a traditional Irish folk ditty called "The Woman From Wexford" and you can find it on YouTube if you type in The Clancy Brothers - Woman from Wexford. OK…shall we?

**_"You gave me these emotions, but you didn't tell me how to use them. Now two people are dead because of us. Why? And what of my soul? Do I have one? Or was that a part you left out?"_**

**Against A Sea Of Troubles**

It is not easy to conclude that suicide is the only way out and yet he had reached the conclusion just the same.

His mother's melodic voice drifted in from the other room and he contemplated what fresh hell awaited him. She only sang when she was in a good mood, and what put her in a good mood was…well it was something that did not bode well for him.

Fresh hell was a term his father had used quite often. _A witticism from author, poet and satirist Dorothy Parker noted for her-_

No. His mind wanted to take him on a long roundabout intellectual dalliance. That was a failsafe, a diversionary tactic he'd developed over the years to distract himself but he couldn't afford to be distracted now. He had work to do.

One of his brothers walked by, silently and disappeared into the room off the lab where his mother was working. 'He was number…4?' he thought, feigning what it was like to forget, to lose count. He cradled his arm subconsciously, fingers brushed against scars, some old, some new.

In the beginning she had been only humming softly, vocalizing perhaps every few words. It was one of the many tunes he had grown so accustomed to over the decades, now she was singing full out. The lilt of her native Ireland finding its way into the tune.

**_There was an old woman in Wexford_**

**_In Wexford she did dwell_**

**_She loved her old man dearly_**

**_But another man twice as well_**

There was a loud thump, perhaps a head or maybe a limb. He didn't know and didn't care to speculate but against his will his mind processed the calculations. It was indeed a head, the weight and the sound of the strike against the floor made that abundantly clear.

He could imagine her, smiling faintly as she worked and it filled him with uneasiness. He didn't need to speculate on the detached pleasure she took in her work. He had had years to come to grips with what she was.

He had first been activated in 2333 and it was now 2379. Chronologically speaking he was 46 years in age and he had spent all 46 years here. His parents dwelling was a combination lab and living space. They had shared these quarters, the three of them for over 4 decades but it had truly been only the last few hours he had found unbearable. Everything else though perfectly preserved in his brain was a gray blur compared to the vibrant nightmare he was in now. He sat upon the chair staring at his console, unable to concentrate on anything but the sounds coming from the next room. Feeling as though he had fallen prey to a circuit malfunction he shut his eyes as he had often seen his father do in an effort to focus.

_Father._

Quite without receiving instruction from him to do so his left fist clenched at his side.

_Anger. This is anger. No. This is rage._

This was emotion and it was bitter. He could never have imagined how dark it would all taste. All the literature he'd read, all the lessons he'd learned from his father had never prepared him for this. Emotion was supposed to be this miasmic thing full of light and shading, a palate bursting onto an ever changing canvas. This was not that at all. This was black, all black.

_All these years, I labored under the assumption I was my fathers son. I was his creation and some of what was within him that was good had passed to me._

Now as he sat in their bunker listening to the sounds of his mother in the adjacent room, vivisecting his sibling he felt only a strong desire to injure, to inflict, to hurt.

_That was not my father. I am not his son. I am hers. I am just like her._

He cocked his head to the side for a moment to consider the implications of that realization. He approached the entire situation as an equation and after running the calculations several times came to a single two part conclusion.

_I must kill her._

_Then, I must kill myself._

From the adjacent room him mother continued on, unaware.

**_So one day she went to the doctor_**

**_Some medicine for to find_**

**_Said; "Doctor give me something_**

**_For to make me old man blind."_**

The inflection of her voice forced his fist into a tighter ball which he only unclenched when he felt the sharp sting of his nails as they pierced the meat of his hands.

Curious, the incongruity of being so aware of his own flesh. In spite of this he was not at all unaccustomed with seeing his own blood. He could remember each scar she had ever given him. But of course that was true, his memory was flawless. But…then again there _were_ scars he could not account for, callous pleasures, painful liberties she had taken with him when he was deactivated. These were all things his emotion chip made it unpleasant for him to recall but recalled them just the same…

Juliana enjoyed hurting him as well as his siblings and she had enjoyed hurting his father. She had a brilliant and frightening mind and he did fear her as his father had feared her. But he also wanted to injure her, to hurt her, make _her_ fear _him_, to hear her beg and plead for her life before he extinguished that blasphemous candle.

That was why he had to die. Not because of what he planned but because of the joy he anticipated reaping from it. It was a violation of his programming, it could likely cause a complete system abort if he were to go through with it and simply let the action stand. At the very least his ethics and morality subroutines would drive him mad. So, he reasoned he must complete the action. He must bring it to its logical conclusion and then he must end the experiment that had been his existence.


	2. Chapter 2

_"It may sound like ingratitude, but that is one of the things I hate here - the attitude that I am a guinea pig. Constant references to having made me what I am, or that someday there will be others like me who will become real human beings. How can I make him understand that he did not create me?"_

**An Unweeded Garden**

The first time he had called her a sadist she had deactivated him. When he was finally brought back online it was three years later. His father had smiled down on him kindly and patted his cheek.

"You mustn't say things like that to her, Data, ever. She has a terrible temper. I spent these past years convincing her to allow me to bring you back-"

Data opened his mouth to vocalize but found himself unable to do so.

"There were however…conditions." Noonien said with a pained look on his face. "He spoke out of turn so he loses his tongue." His father said, his face twisted in disgust as he did a singsong imitation of Juliana. "She's disabled your vocal processor…but I promise its only temporary. Don't hate me, Data, please." He pleaded before breaking into a tentative smile. "It's not all bad news, I've made a few minor adjustments to your systems and one huge change."

Data was still reeling as his internal chronometer rushed to adjust to the passage of time. Three years, to have lost three years, it was almost inconceivable, yet it was nonetheless true. His father had aged, his walk more stooped, his eyes held in them more defeat and a long scar stretched from his temple down to his jaw. The lab looked different too and he frowned slightly as he watched a new android pass by, wearing his face, oblivious to his presence.

"Oh, yes…" Noonien said, following Data's gaze. "She wanted another, I'm not sure why but…" he trailed off. "But like I said I have a surprise for you, sit up boy."

Data did as his father obliged but a new sensation threatened to overwhelm and he froze, eyes moving rapidly as diagnostics ran to process this unexpected change.

"I know, I know, you'll get used to it in a moment. But this means it's working. Look!"

Noonien removed the sheet that had been draped across Data's body and the android gaped at what he saw.

His first thought was; _I am a patchwork._

In great swathes that spanned his legs he saw strips and squares of skin grafted to his endoskeletal structure. There were still spaces where his golden sheeting remained giving the effect of a job not entirely completed, a quilt undone.

"It's real, it's organic and its real." Noonien laughed gleefully. With obvious care he placed a hand on Data's knee. "Can you feel that, Data?"

Could he feel it? His circuitry glowed and erupted with 'feeling', it was overwhelming and he deduced it might be wise to be shut down again, to have this removed.

_I was not built for this. _

_I cannot adjust. _

Noonien removed his hand from his son's knee and placed it on his face gazing at Data until their eyes met.

"I know, I know it's a bit much at first but you'll get used to it, I promise. I'll help you." He said with a soft smile. "I didn't know if it would work but by the gods I wanted to try. That's grown from my own skin by the way. That means you're part of me now, though you always were, and I'm part of you. My Data, flesh of my flesh."

As the madness in his circuitry receded Data reached out and returned his fathers gesture touching his cheek before tracing the ugly scar.

Noonien flashed an embarrassed. "You know your mother."

"Yes, he does." Came a steely voice from behind them.

Data turned and Noonien glanced up to see that Juliana had entered the room. She looked as Data remembered her, in fact she seemed untouched by age, only her hair had a few more strands of silver. If anything she stood taller, every inch of her small frame straight and erect. She walked quickly over to them and observed Data unflinchingly.

"So, it worked, did it?" she asked glancing at her son's legs before laying her hands on the new skin. Again his circuitry revolted at sensations. He shut his eyes tightly trying to regain control but she unlike her husband did not remove her hand. Instead he felt her watching his struggle with detachment.

In a combined effort to break her grip and to appease the dull whine of his modesty program he grabbed the sheet to cover his naked lower half.

"Oh let me get you something to wear, son. I'm sorry." Noonien said hurrying off.

Juliana only laughed.

"I constructed every bit of you, there's nothing I haven't seen and nothing that isn't mine to do with what I will." She sneered at him.

With Noonien gone she leaned closer her face only inches from his.

"Are we ready to behave?" she queried, cool blue eye searching his face. "I considered scrapping you for parts or better yet a core memory dump." As she spoke she brushed phantom hairs away from his forehead with mock concern. "Wipe the slate clean, you know. But your father…" she said trailing off, allowing soft clucks of her tongue to serve as punctuation.

Data didn't believe that for a moment. She would never allow him to be destroyed. He was too valuable, too unique despite so many running about with his face. And yes, too dangerous. That was why she had never made another truly like him, autonomous, free thinking, individual. She needed him as a prototype and though he didn't care to think about it, a partner. His father, already some 20 years her senior was losing the battle against time.

"When we leave here, we'll leave together." She would say in later years. "We'll leave your father to his creations. He always loved them better than me anyways. The dead man can have his dead planet and his dead children."

She had sworn him to secrecy about it and apparently had some misgiving about his programming because he felt little if any allegiance to her and promptly told Noonien. He didn't seem the slightest bit surprised.

"Boy, I'm surprised she's stayed this long. I'm an old man, Data, I'm prepared to die, I've even stopped running from it now. And I'm prepared to die here."

Data recalled that moment, recalled what he identified as pain in his fathers features and felt helpless. He wanted to do something, wanted to…comfort? But how? At this he struggled, as he never had before. How does one empathize, sympathize, emote, embrace? There were times he felt so close. But that was using human terminology, he didn't truly know what that meant, he only knew it felt like those early, early days, when he was attempting to learn to control his motor skills. These were the times he found the most disconcerting, the most 'frustrating', the most difficult.

Lost in these thoughts Data had returned to the then present to see his mother observing him with a hard gaze. He stared back at her again getting that distinct sensation of wanting to break through to something, of being so very close.

After a moment her gaze narrowed, her false smile tightening.

"Same old Data, still with that fire in his eyes. Where did that come from, I wonder? Inheritance? Did Noonien slip in a new program? Or, are you..._evolving_?" She kept her tone even but Data was certain he saw all the signs of fear. "I wouldn't get too cocky, android, how brave can someone with an off switch really afford to be?"

At that moment his father reentered the room, his arms full of clothing.

"Sorry, it took me so long. I find myself getting out of breath so easily these days. It takes little more than just to cover the length of this place to stretch my limits. Did you…did you and your mother make up?" he asked warily, eyeing them both.

Juliana flashed a smile at her husband before tuning back to Data. As she spoke she rested a hand on Data's calf and it took a moment before he felt her nails digging into his soft virgin flesh.

"I think we've reached an understanding." She answered and without another word she was gone. His father pretended not to notice even as Data grimaced in…was this pain? He wondered to himself. Physical pain? A bit mesmerized he began to dab droplets of blood, _his_ blood off his leg with the white sheet.

When she injured him in this fashion, as she was apt to do his father rarely said anything. He only went to work fixing what he could soothing what he couldn't. The skin _was_ in fact an unfinished project and over the decades his father added more and more until he was covered up to where his collarbone would have been. He adjusted, though processing certain sensations, hot and cold, pain and pleasure without any corresponding emotions was difficult. But once he did manage to level out as it were there were unexpected wonders. Water for example. The simple experience of having that liquid course over his skin and being able to feel it, the pink flush that rushed through him from its heat, the prickly goose bumps from its cold. What a treasure a shower was! A soft blanket. A caress. It was exhilarating. Could an android experience exhilaration? He didn't know, perhaps not, but then again an android shouldn't bleed.

It did of course become yet another weapon Juliana could use against him. If anything it awakened a new malevolent streak in her, another way to be cruel. New blood to run, new flesh to burn. Yet it also seemed to cause her a good deal of consternation, Data didn't strike back, didn't turn injured eyes to her accusingly, didn't cower as so many had for years before. He winced, he grimaced, he protected this or that injured area but she never seemed to derive the payoff she sought. She could not break him and that made want to try all the more. He didn't wonder why she did it, why she was like this, reasons were irrelevant. Data simply grew to…grew to what? How to express feeling without emotion, how to experience feeling without emotion, how to care when he couldn't, how to distrust and dislike when he shouldn't be able to. The sensations that grew in him over the months and years since his activation didn't make any sense and he wanted to rip these defective notions from his body. He didn't want emotions, not like this, not as whispers, echoes like half remembered phrases. His father told him he was built with the capacity to evolve but evolve to what? He couldn't overwhelm his memory core, was nowhere near close to filling up 100 petabytes but that was not all he amounted to. What if things came too soon, too fast, what if his father continued adding pieces of this and that to him, what if he couldn't keep up? What if he suffered a cataclysmic overload or complete cascade failure? That was death. That would be his death…and he didn't want to die. These were the thoughts that plagued him for years, each time his father added a new patch of skin or another bit of programming. Each time he came closer to something he didn't want to imagine. _How can I fear something, how can a thought plague me, how can I worry or hope, how can I use these phrases or think in these terms when all these are beyond my programming. Why do I almost feel stifled? Why do I almost feel paralyzed? Why do I _**almost feel**_?_

He would never be human and it seemed that each of his parents both rejoiced and lamented that fact, both of them taking out their emotions on his body in whatever way they saw fit. And when they were to be finished, when they were finally done and he would be rid of them and they him, either by exhaustion, frustration or their own deaths he would be alone in the universe. Unique, precious, strange, hideous, unfinished either feeling everything too sharply or not enough. Then, Data had theorized, he would more than likely hope for death. Though it frightened him, even then the hope had already begun.


	3. Chapter 3

**The opening quote from the previous chapter was from "Flowers for Algernon" where as this one is from "East of Eden". **

**Please drop me a few reviews and let me know how you think its going. I'm never sure if I'm just fumbling in the dark here or if I should soldier on. **

** Hope you guys are enjoying it so far!**

O mighty Paramount, we beseech thee not to sue. Thou owneth everything. I owneth nothing. Etc. Etc. ad infinitum. 

~~Maribor

**Weary. Stale. Flat.**

"_I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies. . . . And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?" _

On the same day that Data had spoken to his father about Juliana's plans to abandon him, Noonien had decided that now was as a good a time as any to tell Data how "all this" had come to pass. When he said; "all this" he had gestured around almost helplessly, looking like a man who had no idea how his life had lead him here.

The plan had never been to stay on Omicron Theta. Juliana despised this dead world. In the early days the planet had been one of the Alliances experimental colonies, prosperous and verdant yet far-flung and distant enough from any formal seat of government. Noonien Soong and the other colonists flourished. His fourth year there a secretive Soong who never allowed anyone without Alliance clearance into his lab found himself charmed by the young, curious and frighteningly intelligent Juliana O'Donnell. The young woman had a strong interest in both systems theory and neuroscience and she fascinated him. For once it seemed someone didn't simply understand his work she understood his passion as well. She became a fixture in his lab and not long after his bed. Finally when he began to feel a trust for her that he hadn't felt with any other soul he began to tell her not just of the work he was contracted to do, but of his hidden experiments. His life's work. A week after he showed her his second lab, this one subterranean meters beneath the surface of Omicron Theta. They married quickly. The old man confessed to Data he didn't quite remember proposing, so much of what happened was a whirlwind. The ceremony itself even seemed an afterthought to her as she was more concerned with getting back to work.

"The truth is," his father began, chuckling with a bit of embarrassment "I had very little idea who she was, where she came from, what her family was like. I know she said she was born on Earth, in Ireland, Drogheda, I believe. She still carries it in her voice. She showed up one day, fresh off a Malvalan trader ship, young and beautiful. And for one moment I wasn't just elbowing my way through the marketplace, rushing past the people to get back to my lab, I was staring right at her. I just knew she was someone who would change my life, its just back then I couldn't imagine how. I think now…that everything she ever told me was a lie. I didn't know, Data. I didn't know what she was until it was too late. I admit I wanted her and over the years I was able to overlook her cruelty because of how she filled my life, because I was lonely. She lit a fire within me, my work leapt ahead by leaps and bounds, by years!"

Her grasp of the positronic brain, her understanding of cybernetics exceeded even the wildest dreams of what he'd hoped for in a partner. Not since his time studying under the madman Doctor Ira Graves had he felt so exhilarated and he was at his happiest working by her side. She was not overly gregarious or demonstrative, she didn't seem to experience the almost childlike delight he did when they made yet another advance. "But what did it matter?" the old man asked Data. "She was here, she didn't have to be my carbon copy. I just wanted her here, a companion I could love who loved me back."

At her insistence they began to expand the underground laboratory. At her insistence they gradually upped the numbers on his supply requisition forms. When he protested that they had more than enough she snapped at him; "Don't be stupid. How often are you wrong about these things and how often am I right? Don't you follow the news? The Alliance is peaceful _for now_. It's stretched out, languid and sure of itself. Why it's practically feeling benevolent. The perfect time for a few extra odds and ends to get signed off on without catching the eye of a self satisfied Gul or ladder climbing Bajoran. Think bigger, Noonien or just think at all. Either would be a welcome change."

And so he acquiesced as he always did when it came to something she wanted. He had no family or friends to speak of and so she became his world. He began to supplement her judgment for his own, her goals for his. When the day came that he no longer received a requisition slip she stopped him from complaining to an official. "Why bring them down on our heads, why call attention to ourselves. Noonien the best of all possible things has happened. You've been forgotten!" As he was no longer on the rolls, anything they needed had to be obtained on the black market, but she was correct, there was so little they did need now. Still she made contact with the captain of a freighter called the Abraxis who could provide things here and there.

With stockpiled parts and equipment as well as an impressive hydroponics bay and a temperamental replicator they were largely self-sufficient.

Three years after the shipments stopped and following a series of failures that weighed heavily on his heart they finally, successfully created a stable positronic matrix and so Data was "born". At this point in the story Data noticed his fathers eyes gleaming, rimmed with unshed tears.

Noonien was ecstatic and Juliana seemed just as excited at first. But she grew weary of her husband tinkering with Data. She grew more and more unhappy with his shortcomings, his appearance, his slow progress, the endless modifications.

"It's flawed." She'd said. Just a series of endless subroutines and dead ends. You write one program to teach it to tie its shoes and another to get it to untie them, it's a waste of circuitry."

Juliana wanted him relegated to a side project. "We've created one." She'd said, "We must do it again."

"I asked her, only once, early on in our marriage if she wanted to have biological children of our own. I had never given much thought to the idea but suddenly it seemed so appealing. If you could have seen the look she gave me!" the old man said with a laugh but Data noticed there was no real amusement in it. "There was one time where I thought she might have been pregnant but I-" Noonien stopped short and his son watched as his fathers features darkened. "I must have been mistaken." He concluded with little conviction. "In any case I wanted to make you perfect." He said taking Data's hand in both of his own. "I had faith in you and what we could do for you. I had assumed that with you she'd develop a sort of motherly, nesting instinct but I was a fool."

It seemed instead of making her more settled, more peaceful in her work she grew more and more agitated, more restless. Noonien lowered his head a bit, seemingly unable to maintain eye contact with his son as he continued.

The first time she had struck him he was dumbfounded.

Perhaps that had been his chance, not to strike back, never to strike back but perhaps his one opportunity to turn the tide. As for the possible outcome, who's to say, maybe she would have backed down, maybe she would have left him, there was no way to know because in the end he did nothing. He saw something flash in her eyes in that moment, something he couldn't recognize then. Now he knew it to be a mixture of disgust and triumph. She had been pushing him, testing him all these years to find his breaking point. Rooting around in his psyche to search out the one thing that might make him fight back. Noonien knew it was then she realized he had no such point.

"I'm a weak man, Data, growing weaker by the day. I don't blame you if you feel disgusted by me. The same disgust she felt." Once Data reminded him that he was incapable of feeling anything the old man continued. "If you knew the things I knew…did you know she actually poisoned me once? Orocaine, if you can believe it. She-…but I'm getting off subject."

After that his life became increasingly focused on and centered in the below ground lab. As he worked below she was busy "keeping up appearances" above. Work began on a new android but Noonien found himself more of an assistant this time. Juliana was unapologetically in charge and in truth he preferred to focus on Data.

For the young android everything was so exciting and new. "You had so many questions." Noonien told his son. "And I enjoyed nothing better than crafting a subroutine or program for you and watching some new awareness light up your eyes. I watched your first achievements like the proud parent I was, cataloging your first grasp of this theory or that concept."

Juliana was not nearly so charmed. At first she objected to even giving him a name, she just didn't see the point. "I don't want to get bogged down with silly attachments." She'd said. "It's a toaster and you want to send it to school!" Noonien however remained unswayed on this point and found that as his love for Juliana ebbed his love for Data grew. Seeing more and more sentience bleed into Data's eyes day after day brought the aging man a comfort he hadn't known before.

Perhaps out of malice or possibly only ambivalence any potential Noonien saw in the others she was quick to quash. They rolled off, one after another as though on an assembly line and still she was unsatisfied.

"There were problems. None of them were quite right, a twitch here, a glitch there, unexplained failures, overloads, power-downs. It seemed as though recreating what we had done with you was proving harder than imagined."

He used to question her in the beginning about what she wanted, when would she finally be satisfied, what was their goal. But as he grew accustomed to his questions falling on deaf ears he stopped trying. His focus was totally on Data.

The day of the attack was the first time perhaps ever that Noonien saw his wife upset. She bolted off the lift and as she got closer he noticed her hair was undone and perspiration peppered her features.

"Something is happening." Was all she said as she rushed towards him. For a time he thought she was seeking consolation in his arms but after a moment he felt her rummaging through his coat pockets eventually coming away with a scanning device. She aimed at the ceiling, her face a mask of fear, excitement and confusion.

"I've never seen readings like this before." She said breathlessly.

"Juliana, what's happening?" Noonien asked and she turned to him with a look of excitement incongruent with the words she next spoke.

"I looked to the west- I was outside speaking with that fool Vol Jerez and suddenly this shadow stretched across the sky blocking out the sun. Then I saw this….thing descend. It was mammoth. I could see these great tracts of land being lifted up into the air. The soil, structures, people all of them were being ripped from the earth and disintegrated right before my eyes. All that was left was dirt and when it landed again it was gray, hard and gray and dead, Noonien. Whatever it was it was moving fast, so fast and before that idiot Jerez could manage; "What do you think that is?" I was already inside and on the lift down. That was so close."

"What of Jerez? And the other colonists?" Noonien asked. But Juliana had returned to her readings.

"What of him? What of any of them?" she asked distractedly.

"Father?" came Data's voice from beside him. Noonien had no idea as to when the android had approached but he wore a confused look on his face as he continued. "Father, I hear…screaming."

"It must be nearly above us now." Juliana said furiously inputting information on the device she held.

"Yes, son." Noonien said placing a hand on Data's shoulder.

"Are we in danger, Father?"

"No, Data, _we_ are safe." He responded unable to keep the bite from his tone.

The android considered this for a moment before continuing.

"Then are we not obligated, Father, to render assistance, to bring others to the safety we have found."

"I wish you hadn't taught it to call you that." Juliana said with irritation. "Father." She said mockingly. "I'm reading enormous energy conversions. The electro magnetic spikes are incredible. It's passing over us now. At least, I think its passing." She said lowering her equipment.

"Am I correct in assuming those individuals whom I heard screaming are dead, Father?" Data continued.

Noonien suddenly felt weighted down by what had just occurred, it was too much for him to fathom. An entire colony wiped out. Not by a ship or an act of war but by something unknown.

"Yes, Data, I believe they are." He said weakly.

Again his son looked confused.

"Then I fail to understand the ethics of our actions."

At the word ethics Juliana turned and for one of the first times appeared to be gazing at Data as more an amusing individual and less an inanimate object.

"Ethics?" she asked with a sneer. "What have you been teaching it?"

Noonien had taken a seat his left hand massaging his chest and the tightness he felt within it.

"A simple program." He responded dismissively.

"Well, _Data_," she said condescendingly as she approached him. The fact that he was taller and certainly stronger than she did not intimidate Juliana in the least. "What would you have had us do?"

"Attempt to save those above." He said simply.

"And what if I told you that was impossible?"

"You did not appear to try."

Juliana laughed. "Noonien did you install a holier-than-thou subroutine as well? I'm sorry Data, that I don't live up to your ethical standards."

Noonien watched the exchange with surprise at his wife as well as Data. For a moment he thought he saw something flash in Data's eyes, something he couldn't identify, something that simply couldn't be there.

"No," Data said in a tone that was almost too placid. "I do not believe you do."

Juliana eyed him hard but for once held her tongue.

"If you'll excuse me, Father, I will resume my work." Data said before returning to the space he had claimed as his work area.

Juliana watched him go before turning to her husband.

"Well, that was interesting." She said softly. "I'm going to go analyze these results. I'll be in my lab." When she called over her shoulder her voice had its normal crispness but beneath it Noonien could have sworn he heard fear. "I expect that ethics program prevents him from injuring anyone?" she asked.

"Of course."

She only nodded before disappearing.

From that day on things were different. She began speaking to Data rather than at him. She used his name, asked him to call her Mother; she had him assist with her experiments and the creation of other androids. Gradually, Data supplanted Noonien in his place of prominence in the lab. Data could work faster, harder and longer than his father and with no complaints. Noonien didn't mind this; he was getting older, his hands less steady, his mind less clear. Besides it gave him more time to work on an extensive upgrade for Data, a gift of sorts for his beloved son.

Data could himself pick up the tale from here. Working with Juliana was no easy feat. By his nature he was crafted to be obliging, obedient and efficient still there seemed to be things about him that enraged Juliana. She swore at him, belittled him, ignored him but that only went so far. How to hurt someone with the strength of 10 Cardassians? How to injure the uninjurable.

As always she found a way.

At first it was just a simple as removing an appendage. When he "tested" her as she put it Data was liable to lose a hand or an arm. Noonien would spend hours if not days convincing her to give it back, to reattach it. Ultimately he would be successful though often not without suffering some injury himself.

Then there was the day Noonien heard a loud, flat smack and rushed from his work station into the lab to find Data laying on the floor on his back, eyes open, unresponsive.

"What happened?" he cried rushing over to his son.

"He started to question me, my methods, my work. I don't need an overlord I need an assistant. He was warned and when he didn't stop I executed a virus I implanted in his system.

"What virus?" Noonien asked with horror.

"One that I wrote." She said simply. She clucked her tongue disapprovingly as she gazed at her husband. "What have you been doing to him, Noonien? What have you been teaching? Rebellion? Rebellion instead of obedience?"

"I haven't been teaching him anything per se." The old man had protested.

Juliana approached him a look of withering fury on her face. She grabbed his face, squeezing it between her fingers.

"I don't want you writing any other programs for him. Not without my approval. For all intents and purposes, Data is finished. He is complete. He is a closed system."

On the surface he agreed, but in truth he was more determined than ever. He worked on Data secretly, adding new abilities, new subroutines, all the while swearing Data to secrecy. That was a confidence Data did keep. He participated in his fathers' manipulations of his systems. Some he came to appreciate most he did not. He took a sort of humoring approach, focusing more on the idea that it helped his father. He needed it, Data did not. The adjustments to his positronic net were just one more thing to contend with, to adjust to. Then there was always the promise of "something big" as Noonien put it just waiting over the horizon. Data found the promise in no way comforting and attempted to avoid speculating as to what it might be. Instead, over the years he learned to perfect the art of remaining silent, and though it distressed his father and unsettled his mother there were times in which he was indistinguishable from his brothers, save for his vulnerable, exposed skin. He learned to live in his own thoughts, develop his own pursuits and even crafted something of an imagination. And when time and circumstances allowed it he would venture up to the surface and walk among the ruin that had been Omicron Theta. Sometimes he spent hours there, alone, in kinship with the dead ground, the empty soil and the tortured sky.


	4. Chapter 4

OK, hope you guys are still enjoying it. _Please, please, please_ review and let me know what you think. Heads up to the Lore-Lovers he will **not** be making an appearance in this story. Sorry to disappoint, I figured there was enough malevolence with Juliana :D. All right, the quote is from A.I. and again, please let me know what you think.

-Maribor

You won't understand the reasons but I have to leave you here.  
**Is it a game?**  
No.  
**When will you come back for me?**  
I'm not. You'll have to be here by yourself.  
**Alone? If I become a real boy can I come home?**  
That's just a story.  
**But a story tells what happens.**  
Stories are not real! You're not real!  
**Why do you want to leave me? I'm sorry I'm not real. If you let me, I'll be so real for you! ****  
**Let go! I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the world.

**Leave Her To Heaven**

Here and now in 2379 Data sat mourning his dead father and plotting a murder suicide. He understood now why humans sometimes laughed maniacally while under situations of great duress. He felt a bit like laughing himself. She made him privy to her plans some hours ago and as expected he nodded in agreement. She met him with a smile as he was exiting the lift from the surface, having just returned from burying his father's body.

The Bajoran would not be put off she said. Plans had changed and the Alliance must not be allowed to benefit from all the hard work of the past 5 decades. That is why the work must continue even if it meant sacrifice. They were to dock with the Talarian freighter just beyond Omicron Theta's nearest moon. The captain, who has served as their black market contact through the years, had been alerted, he would come sooner than scheduled and rather than dropping off supplies he would take them with him, for a steep price. So, everything must happen quickly. Again he had nodded with a '"Yes, Mother"; before glancing down at the moist soil still fresh on his hands. Had she cried for him? He wondered.

**Oh feed him eggs and marrowbones**

**And make him sup them all**

**It won't be so very long after **

'**Til he won't see you at all**

So, they began, he running diagnostics on the shuttlecraft, double and triple checking the specifications making sure everything would be perfect in the tiny craft for their escape. It was all for show of course, Data's plans necessitated them only getting off the ground and breaking orbit. In the meantime she was busy dismantling his brothers, one by one she called them into her lab and began the process which concluded with a concentrated phaser set to burn circuitry and bioplast sheeting.

And so too, too solid flesh melted. He felt the smell hung on him.

He had been present at the 'birth' of each of his siblings and was thankful not to be present when they 'breathed their last' as it were. Still, he knew how it went. She disabled their jaws, not that they would have tried to speak. She had long ago stopped creating them with vocal processors in any case. She disabled the function of their limbs next, not that they were programmed to fight back. There was no spark of life or self preservation in their eyes. They simply lay there, looking up at her blankly, unaware that their existence was moments from winking out. She could have easily deactivated them before she performed this work but she _preferred_ it this way.

_If I had to see that now, if I had to assist, I believe I would surely go mad._

The shuttle had room for three, one place for him, one for his mother and one place for his sister. She had been given the task of assisting his mother with the dismantling and he did not envy her. So much had happened in the past few days that he wished to discuss with Sister but finding a moment of freedom had proven impossible. Their mother had been relentless in her work, she felt time running out on them and had neither slept nor eaten. He vaguely wondered if she might die before she finished but stopped his thoughts from turning down that path. His mother knew the timetable given to them by the Bajoran was done on a whim, to humor a seemingly harmless and stupid old woman. They were ruthless but so was she, and she had sacrificed her husband then just as she was sacrificing her sons now.

**So she fed him eggs and marrowbones **

**And made his sup them all**

**It was so very long after**

**Till he couldn't see the wall**

The Alliance had only happened upon them by accident a random ion storm had kept them from their destination and some ingenious officer had picked up the faintest of faint energy readings. Within a half an hour his father was dead and they were all unofficial captives of The Alliance. That was two days ago. Had it really been only two? Were it not for a Terran rebellion on Garvis III they would all most likely be in custody at this moment. The Bajorans however had promised to return at which time his mother would be taken to a meeting with a local magistrate and more than likely executed once all information could be extracted from her. As for he and his siblings they would likely be dissected by inferior scientist eager to replicate them by the dozens.

It was the one area in which he was in complete agreement with his mother. This could not be allowed to happen. So, the other androids, all 6 of them with the exception of he and his sister were to be dismantled and destroyed beyond repair or use. The remaining three members of the family would escape in the heavily fortified shuttle aided by the very thing that was probably delaying the Bajorans at this moment, the continuing ion storm to rendezvous with the Abraxis.

**Says he I'll go and drown myself**

**Although it would be a sin**

**Say's she I'll come to the water side**

**And I'll help to push you in**

Sister did not so much 'sneak up on him' as surprise him with her presence. She held a PADD in her hand and initiated a link with one near him. He stopped work on the shuttle and reached for it.

MOTHER IS SLEEPING. THIS IS THE FIRST REST SHE HAS TAKEN IN DAYS.

"That is good." He responded, keeping his voice low. "She will need her strength for what's to come. How are you, Sister?"

She stared at him mutely as he spoke, her vocal processors also having been long ago removed. She typed quickly on the device.

I AM FUNCTIONING WITHIN NORMAL PARAMETERS AND YET I FEEL UNSETTLED. THIS WORK MAKES ME UNEASY. WHY IS THAT?

Sister was the last, the final Soong android and together they made bookends, the Alpha and the Omega. She was no automaton, she was advancing at an astounding rate, assimilating information that filled memory banks more vast than his. They needed to be vast and complex for what their mother was planning. Just recently she had begun to show signs of emoting. These infant stages, these baby steps hinted at what could be a promising future a giant leap forward in the creation of artificial life. But none of it would ever come to fruition.

"You are uneasy because you feel an attachment to the other androids. You identify with them, their passing reminds you of your own mortality, perhaps."

I AM MORTAL?

"I believe so, yes."

I WILL DIE SOMEDAY, DATA?

He hesitated, his eyes drifting back towards the shuttlecraft and away from hers.

I WILL DIE SOMEDAY, DATA? She asked again.

"Yes, as will I as will our mother."

AS DID OUR FATHER.

"Yes."

I BELIEVE I WILL BE HAPPY WHEN THIS IS OVER. WHERE SHALL WE GO WHEN WE LEAVE HERE? I HAVE NEVER BEEN ANYWHERE ELSE.

"I think perhaps you should return to your station. Were you not studying 22nd century composers? You were enjoying them, I believe."

I WAS. I WILL CONTINUE. THANK YOU, DATA.

"You are welcome, Sister."

He wondered sometimes why he was the only one to be given a name. Sisters designation was simply Eight. She was the only female and the most Terran looking of them all. Of course she looked like a younger version of his mother, that was after all the ghastly point.

The work of creating a stable positronic matrix had been achieved and duplicated so as to no longer present a problem. Juliana had then moved on to what she considered the ultimate point of it all. Not an army of androids, what would she after all want with an army? No she wanted to be able to transfer her consciousness from the frailty of her failing human body to a body that was nigh indestructible. She and Noonien had radically diverged in their work and yet he loved her and she dragged him along promising immortality and a life together. A body for him and a body for her with Data to care for them and provide an extra set of hands, brainpower and ports when necessary. Number seven would be for his father and number eight for her. But when the Bajoran's came and demanded to know how these elderly colonists had survived and what manner of man these "yellow tinted creatures" were she thought of only her own skin.

As Noonien went to protect one of his sons she called out to the Bajoran, Reeva Barthos "Careful, he'll send them after you!" With one shot his father fell to the ground. His mother immediately began pleading, she was an innocent, a humble gardener, they lived off of what she could cultivate in hydroponics once the Crystaline entity destroyed the planet. She didn't understand Noonien's experiments and as far as she was concerned The Alliance had every right to them.

Data had waited, making sure he appeared as dumb as his brothers but secretly he was poised to strike. In one move he could have his hands on the nearest phaser, in two moves a wide burst would assure 3 of the four members of the landing party would be dead and in three moves they would either have Reeva as a corpse or a hostage. It didn't come to that however. A communication from the orbiting ship indicated an emergency situation on Garvis III and Reeva left with a promise to return. Juliana was given time to collect her things assemble the androids and prepare to abandon this place. Five days, that was all, certainly no more and more than likely, less.

The Bajoran has beamed away, leaving them all in silence. Juliana gazed at Noonien's inert body and slowly approached. Data beat her there with quick, anxious strides. Kneeling by his fathers form he touched his pallid face lightly.

"He is still alive." Data said with alarm. "We must help him." He glanced up to look at his mother. "Assist me." He said and then with a force that surprised even him; "Assist me!"

"No." the word came not just from Juliana but from Noonien as well.

The old man opened his eyes to look at his wife and son.

"Juliana." He said weakly as he extended a hand towards her. She took it in her own, her face impassive.

"I won't apologize, Noonien." She said matter-of-factly.

The old man gave half a smile. "I know that. I only wanted to say that for what its worth, I loved you. I love you still. You've always had that. That has to matter in the grand scheme of things. I loved you and perhaps that will be enough to redeem you in the end. Perhaps it will redeem us both."

Juliana considered him for a moment before slowly releasing his hand.

"Often-Wrong." She said quietly. Her face betrayed no emotion and as for her voice, what was said or not said vanished in the air before it could be discerned. She stood there, towering over them both, her eyes cobalt and hard. "Goodbye Noonien." And with that she turned on her heel and exited form the room closing the lab door behind her.

"Father if you will allow me to get Sister we can attempt to heal you. There is-"

"I'm dying, Data. Nothing can stop that now. I'm not sure I want anything to." He croaked. "Just indulge an old man one last time. I saw so many of those death scenes in ancient Earth melodramas but I never thought I'd play one out." He gave a hoarse sort of laugh which bridge into a painful cough. Data easily brought the old man flush against him to offer bracing support.

Noonien patted his hand and smiled.

"You see…you see that's what I was hoping for, that's what I wanted for you. I don't think you truly know how far you've come. How could you? Data, there are two types of AI, Weak and Strong. Weak, well your brothers are weak, they're made to look human and in some ways approximate humans but they're limited. There are things they'll never understand, never achieve. They'll never _want_ anything, Data, they'll never _desire_. But you, you my boy are Hard AI, you learn, you adapt, you evolve, you grow. Your brothers could be downloaded back into a computer and there wouldn't be anything lost. But you, Data, you're not just a program. You and your sister are the culmination of a dream. There's only one thing that I've left undone.

Nooniens breathing grew shallow but still he struggled to make eye contact with his son.

"Data, access your 4th nested memory file and execute instruction; Bluefairy."

After momentary confusion regarding the request passed he began to do as instructed.

"Data…" Noonien said weakly. "Happy Birthday."

_Birthday: a celebration centering around the anniversary of a persons birth. Noonien Soong had seen to it that Data celebrated a good deal of his own "birthdays". It was of course a simple affair that mostly involved trying to get Data to appreciate sweets and giving him a small gift, a book, a painting. But on his 35 birthday he received a most unusual present. _

_Noonien held the chip out to him, clasped delicately between the tweezers. _

_"What is it, Father?"_

_"A gift, a birthday gift that I've been working on for you for years."_

_"But, what is it?"_

_"Come here." Noonien said beckoning him over._

_Data joined the old man where he was sitting and allowed him to access a neural port. The procedure took all of 5 minutes._

_"I do not detect a change, Father?" Data said with a wrinkle of his brow._

_Noonien nodded and patted his sons' knee. "It's encrypted, just for the time being."_

_"Why?"_

_"Let's just say, I don't want you to open it…not just yet. I'll give you the code in time. You've come so far my boy, I just want to see if you can go farther."_

Imagine every sound in the audio spectrum, played at the same time. Every word that has ever been said to you, every song you have ever heard. Imagine every color you've ever seen, every sensation you've ever felt, half felt, almost felt. Imagine the veil you never knew was before your eyes falling. Imagine being, turned on. All that Noonien saw pass over Data's face in a matter of seconds.

Data's hand went to his forehead, he grimaced, his jaw clenched bearing bottom teeth, his breath came in a ragged hiss and his eyes were shut tightly as though he feared to open them.

"Data, please look at me, I haven't much time."

"What…is…this?" his son asked through gritted teeth. Data opened bewildered wounded eyes and stared at his father. "What...?" he began again.

"Emotions." Noonien said simply. A sharp pain struck him and he groaned and had to slow his breathing before he could continue. "The final piece of the puzzle. Basic emotions, Data."

"I wish it to stop." He responded with vehemence.

"Don't we all. For me, its just about to, but for you its just beginning."

"Please, do not _philosophize_. How do I make this end?"

Noonien sighed heavily. "I did give you the ability to turn it on and off. And in fact you must have it off around your mother, you must, Data. I don't know what she would d." he furrowed his brow. "I don't know what you would do. But let me see you like this, this one last time."

At that moment it seemed as though Data came to himself, he looked at Noonien almost as though he'd never seen him before, as though he couldn't imagine how things had come to this. How was it that he was holding his dying father in his arms?

The look of pure anguish as it crossed his sons features for the first time both pained and fulfilled him.

"Father?" Data asked gripping him tighter. "Please, do not go." He shook his head in short emphatic movements and Noonien saw an animation in Data he couldn't have imagined before this. The strings were cut.

"I wanted to see how far you could come before the chip was switched on. And you did so well, Data, you stretched your programming, you found little bits of emotion, I saw it! I could see you swimming towards the surface, always almost breaking through. And now you're ready.

"I am not ready to lose you, not in this manner, not at this time." Data's voice cracked and there were tears, actual tears, some captured in his lashes, others freely rushing down his face.

"I'm sorry, Data. I'm sorry it hurts. I'm sorry I'm leaving you. I'm sorry I never showed you what was out there..." the old man clutched his chest and gasped in pain and surprise. "Listen now boy. You have to leave here. Leave your mother, leave this place. Don't let anger poison you, son. I'll brook no notions of revenge. She can't help what she is but that doesn't mean you have to stay. You weren't meant to…to rust here. Be a good boy, now. Put your arms around me. You know what an embrace is."

Data embraced him, immediately, fiercely. Soft cries echoed in Nooniens' ears piercing his failing heart.

"I have…so many questions, Father."

"All that matters is that I love you, son." Noonien said resting against Data's strong frame. Finally resting.

"Do you believe that we are in some way alike, Father?"

"Yes, Data, I do. That's why it's alright for me to die. All the best of what I am will live on in you."

Data sobbed brokenly, bitterly.

"That's a good boy now. That's my dear boy. That's…my…good Dat-"

And so Noonien Soong breathed his last, dying in the arms of his favorite son.


	5. Chapter 5

_**I figured the least I could do first off is acknowledge the people who've kindly reviewed me:**_

_VamfireRyoLover I too saw there was a comic book with Data as a Captain. I'm not one of those who actually has a problem with Data's personality reasserting itself and overwriting B4's but I know there are plenty of people who disagree. I'm going to have to make an effort to get a hold of that comic!_

_SilentEyedKat Glad you like the quotes before the chapters, I'm a big fan of it as a scene setter. But the funny thing is, is that like the chalkboard gag at the beginning of The Simpsons, once you commit to it you kind of regret it after awhile since you must keep it up! LOL. I'm happy you like Data. I am and always will be a Data girl and he's my favorite to write._

_Aeristel Glad you like the Mirror Universe concept. I'd seen it written that because of the brutality of the MU and the slavery on Earth its unlikely that Doctor Soong would have been able to conduct experiments. But what is Star Trek or Fan fiction for that matter if it doesn't explore the possibilities of the impossible? Hope you enjoy Juliana's comeuppance._

_Toriatamasama Very happy you think I've done a good job with Data. He's really the only TNG character I kinda feel I know backwards and forwards enough to write. Speaking of being schooled in Trek my knowledge of the Mirror Universe is sadly lacking so that's why I decided to keep the cast to a minimum. I'm not sure whether I intend to make this a longer story or not either…well actually that's not true, I want it to be longer I'm just not sure if that's going to happen. Hopefully my ideas will congeal and I'll push on._

_ImpishTubist Thanks for the support! On one hand no one wants to beg for reviews but on the other hand this site can make you feel a bit as though you're shouting into the void when no one writes anything, so thanks!_

**Ok, so this is the end of this story. I'd like to say I have 20 handwritten pages just waiting to be typed up but I don't. I want to continue as I have some ideas of where to go from here but we'll have to see if my muse, (who looks remarkably like Data and is always happy to remove his uniform for me), will cooperate…**

**Umm what else…well all the chapter titles have been taken from lines in Hamlet. I was channeling a lot of Hamlet-y vibes with this as well as East of Eden's Catherine. This final quote is a bastardization of a conversation in the "Doctor Who" episode entitled "Dalek". **

**Other than that, read on. I'm in no way too proud to plead for reviews so please read and review!**

**-Maribor**

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  
**

**Why do we survive?**  
I don't know.  
**I am the last...**  
You're not even that. You're mutating.  
**Into what?**  
Something new. I'm sorry.  
**I can feel. So many ideas. So much darkness. This is not life. This is sickness. Are you afraid? **  
Yes.  
**So am I**

**Mad As The Sea And The Wind****  
**

Data didn't know how long he sat there, arms encircling his fathers' lifeless body. Or rather he knew but he didn't care. There was a unique horror to hearing internal organs come to a wheezing, gurgling halt. First the heart stopped, then the blood flow slowed, tension left the muscles and that final rattle crept up the throat, escaping the mouth. It was difficult to hear and virtually impossible to deal with feeling it.

_My father is dead._

All the pragmatism, realism, rationalizations that his existence pre-emotion chip had afforded him was gone now. He felt anguished. He felt abandoned. He felt hurt. He _felt_ in brutal, crystal clarity, he felt. Everything was too loud, too focused. Each minute lost all meaning, as it seemed to drag on regardless of the laws of time.

_I am holding my fathers body._

_My father is dead._

_I am grieving his loss._

Those words repeated over and over in his brain, seeming to take on a different texture, a different meaning until they no longer made sense.

"What are you doing?" a voice said piercing the silence.

Words and thoughts melted together.

It was she, his mother who had spoken. And within him Data felt such a quick, un-namable emotion leap up with a speed that frightened him. He imagined, actually _imagined_ placing one strong hand around her throat, lifting her off the ground and...

Quickly he switched the chip off for the first time. And like that, order was restored. The cacophony stopped. His mother was addressing him and while her presence unnerved him and irritated him the rage was gone, even difficult to conceive of. His father was dead and that was regrettable and the result of gross negligence and betrayal on his mothers part. He would miss his fathers' presence.

"I was simply…considering him for a moment." Data said before pulling the body away from his own and placing him gently on the floor.

"Nothing more to consider, he's dead. It was him or us and if you start Data, if you even _begin_ to question me I will see to it that you _burn_ and when you burn you will feel every moment of it."

Data rose to his feet, locking his eyes with hers, matching her stance.

"I have nothing to say. What has happened cannot be altered. What has been set in motion cannot be stopped."

"Good." She said with a nod. Data noted her surprise. She had been primed for fight and was disappointed when none occurred. "Now-"

"But if you will excuse me, Mother." He said briskly cutting her off. Stooping down he scooped up his fathers' body and began carrying it towards the lift.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To bury Doctor Noonien Soong." He responded stepping aboard and starting their ascent.

"With what?"

"With my hands." He responded disappearing out of sight.

Omicron Theta was breathing again. Slow and tentative yet breathing all the same. The sky had cleared, it no longer rose above him heavy, dark, polluted. The ground beneath his feet was no longer hard and inhospitable. Instead small blades of grass, fragile and new could be seen everywhere. Life was returning to this place.

Having no previous experience in choosing a location for such a task as this Data simply picked a place he himself liked. He had grabbed a white tarp and rope from the above ground lab and now set to work laying his father upon it and binding his body within. That done he got on his knees and began to dig. It of course took the android little effort to move the earth and before long he had created an area wide and deep enough to hold the corpse. He waited until the body was in the ground, covered by nearly half the dislodged dirt before turning the chip back on.

The reaction was nearly the same, a rush of sound and clarity swept over him. The reality of burying his father buckled his knees and while he had been standing moments before he now found himself crouching on the ground arms wrapped protectively about himself.

He cried. Hard, wracking sobs that, were it possible, would have exhausted him. He finished the burial, hands dampened by soil and tears. Standing back, gazing at the small mound of turned earth he felt a sense of finality come over him. It was over. This was over.

Literature and better-crafted sentiments failed him. Unsure of what to say he simply muttered; "Thank you for my life. Thank you for everything, Father."

A sadness vast as the empty plains of Omicron Theta enveloped him. He stood and walked back to their compound and as he neared it he began to replay the events over in his mind. He grew increasingly upset with himself. Why had he not acted? Thought quicker? He could have saved his father. He could have done something. If only he had not been caught unaware.

Then there was of course his mother. As his mind reworked the events he saw her clearly, so easily trading the life of her husband for her own. The longer he thought about it the more furious he became and the more darker thoughts emerged.

Was it then?, he wondered now as he affixed a panel within the shuttlecraft. Was it then, truly seeing in his minds eye what she had done that made him decide to take this action? Was it the ease with which she came to the decision to destroy the others of his kind? Or was it the fact that even now she kept singing that damnable song?

**So they jogged and jogged and jogged**

**Until they came to the further brim**

**Says she You're here to drown yourself**

**And me to push you in**

For the next few hours Data went about assembling decades of work, information, schematics etc. all of which he concurred with Juliana must not fall into the hands of the Alliance. Going to the small area of the compound that had belonged to him he found precious little that he really wanted to give the illusion of treasuring for the trip. There were several books his father had given him, which, though he knew them word for word still held sentimental value. But he didn't want to bring them with him, didn't like the idea of them being destroyed. With regards to his father, in the end it had been necessary to partition certain memories off from his mainframe. They were too painful and while he was trying to have the emotion chip on for longer and longer stretches of time, thoughts of Noonien threatened to paralyze him.

Number Six has entered the lab some time ago and only now did his mother exit with Sister following silently behind.

"Are we ready?" Juliana asked.

"At your leisure, Mother. We are packed and ready to evacuate."

"Good, we'll need to deactivate this one." She said motioning to Sister. "She's a bit of unexpected cargo. But I'd rather pay extra once we're aboard the _Abraxis_ than run the risk of him not taking us at all. See to it."

Data nodded and took his sister gently by the arm, leading her to the shuttlecraft. In a way knowing she would be offline eased his mind. He did not want her to suffer. This way she would simply pass from one oblivion to another.

Once she was seated inside he climbed in beside and took her hand in his. With no PADD available and not wanting to run the risk of their mother hearing them conversing Data did all the talking.

He switched the emotion chip on.

"I must deactivate you now." He said finding it hard to meet her eyes. "We are leaving this place."

She nodded perfectly aware of that fact but Data noticed her features appeared to soften, She was growing by leaps and bounds and that made this all the more difficult. Were they all three to live he would see the soft gaze in Sister's eyes replaced by the cold shrewdness of his mothers. He had already run every calculation of what could become of them; just the two of them but that too was grim. There was nowhere to go, no way to get there and all of that ignored the fact that he was flawed, he was malfunctioning, he was wrong. Everything he was feeling was an aberration and he must destroy himself, Sister would be unfortunate and ugly collateral damage.

Placing her over his she mirrored his gesture and Data felt tears sting his eyes.

"We were never able to interact properly. What I mean by this is I was never presented with the opportunity to know you, as I should have, as I wanted to know you. I wanted to watch you grow and evolve and I feel I must apologize to you. I should have done more…" he trailed off with a shake of his heads. Words it seemed sometimes came with a greater difficulty with the chip.

Sister's eyes showed worry and he forced a smile knowing she was too 'young' not to believe it to be true.

"I do not mean to worry you. Just know that we are family and that I love you."

Sister smiled at him and Data leaned over to embrace her. He hugged her for a moment and then another and another before finally manipulating the deactivation switch on her back. He body fell slack and heavy against him and regrettably he let her go and fastened her into the shuttle seat.

**Well the old woman she stood back a bit****  
**

**For to rush an' push him in****  
**

**But the old man gently stepped aside****  
**

**And she went tumblin' in**

Data emerged from the shuttle to find his mother gazing at the empty lab that had been their home for years upon years.

"Do you know what I think when I look at all this, Data? When I glance around and I see all these ghost, all these memories?"

"I cannot imagine, Mother. Though I would hazard a guess and venture to say; Good riddance?"

Juliana turned to him a look of amused shock on her face and then she began to laugh. Her eyes squinted and her mouth turned up at the corners and she laughed harder and longer than he had ever seen her laugh before.

He turned the chip off lest he kill where she stood.

When Juliana finished laughing she wiped gently at her eyes with a kerchief and patted his arm. "Perhaps there is some of me in you after all. Well, lets go then." And she picked up the tune where she had left it.

**Oh, how loudly she did yell****  
**

**And how loudly she did bawl****  
**

**'Arra, hold yer whist, y'old woman****  
**

**Sure I can't see you at all**

They entered the shuttlecraft and Data took the helm quickly inputting the navigational instructions. Juliana seated herself at his right glancing back at the inert body of Sister before inputting coordinates of her own. The shuttle doors closed, within moments Data initiated the opening of the launch pad doors and soon after that they were airborne.

**She swam and swam and swam until,****  
**

**She could no further swim;****  
**

**The old man grabbed a long, black pole,****  
**

**And pushed her further in**

Omicron Theta appeared before them for the last time, youthful and green and indifferent to their departure. Data spotted the place where he had buried his father and bid him a silent farewell. He would never see this place again.

"We are approaching the exosphere." Data announced at the same moment he turned his emotion chip on for the last time. "We have cleared the planets' atmosphere. Plotting course three zero zero seven mark eight one four."

"The _Abraxis_ should be waiting for us just beyond the moon. Goodness Data I feel like a girl again. I feel like I'm breathing for the first time in decades."

"I am detecting a localized ion storm. Compensating."

"Will it interfere with our arrival?" Juliana asked with concern.

"Doubtful. Shields are holding though we may have a turbulent ride." Data responded entering more than a few codes on his console before spinning his chair towards her.

"Mother, might I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead." She said with a sigh not bothering to glance up from her console.

"Do you believe in an afterlife?"

"Do I what?" she said looking at him.

"An afterlife." He pressed. "I am just curious as to your belief system."

"No I don't believe in any such nonsense. And if this is about your father I don't think he put much stock into it either. Though I don't intend to worry about it much as I plan on living a very, very long time." She motioned her head back toward sister and went back to her console. Silence descended upon the shuttle and Data thought that was where the conversation might stand until she unexpectedly spoke again.

"When I was a little girl my mother told me a story that frightened me half to death. The Cóiste Bodhar. It's the carriage that comes for you when you die. Driven by a headless coachman and six black horses, black as night. Once the coach sets out it can't return empty, someone, somewhere has to go. First the banshee warns of the death and then the coachman comes to take the miserable soul away. He opens the door and beckons you in all the while smiling. My mother told me that sometimes, just sometimes a piece of pure gold can frighten it away." Juliana chuckled darkly before continuing. "I slept with my gold communion cross of under my pillow for years after that.

He had not been aware that an androids skin crawl but there it was just the same.

"Nothing but ancient folklore to frighten an impressionable child…scare them into minding."

"Perhaps, many cultures have similar variations of tales which deal with death or dying. I was simply curious as to what you believed."

"I believe nothing and now you know." She said with a sigh before finally raising her hand and glancing out before them. There lay the expanse of space, dark and speckled with stars. Data saw the joy she was feeling in this moment on her face and it became clear why his father had thought her beautiful. "_This_ is where I belong. What an awfully big adventure is waiting for us."

Suddenly Data wanted nothing more than to remove that look from her face, to pull that joy away from her when it was within reach. It was finally time.

"Mother, might I ask you another question."

Immediately suspicious she turned steely eyes toward him. "If you must."

"Do you still mean to go through with the transfer?"

"Of course." She said with surprise. "The unit was constructed for just that purpose. And you'll help me."

"No, mother, I will not." He said simply.

"What do you mean?" she said warily.

Data felt a grin spread across his features as he pressed one final button on the console. As he did so the ship rocked ever so slightly as it entered the perimeter of the disturbance.

"Auto self destruct sequence initiated." The computer responded.

"Computer, 2 minute, silent countdown until remaining 10 seconds."

"What are you doing!" his mother boomed. She immediately began trying to work her own console. "I'm locked out. What have you done? Are you malfunctioning or have you just lost your mind?"

"I am functioning within normal parameters, Mother. And I am in perfect possession of my faculties." He leaned back in his seat adopting a position of complete relaxation.

"Computer?" she asked and of course received no response. "Computer acknowledge me!"

"I have encrypted the system, you will not be able to stop this." He replied calmly.

"I never should have trusted you. How did you manage it?"

"Manage what?" he asked with interest.

Picking up a nearby pad she hurled it at his head in anger but he dodged it easily.

"Your deal with the _Abraxis_! What is he going to do, transport you out? You had it planned the entire time."

"There is no deal, Mother."

The ship reeled again, harder this time, as they seemed to be passing through the heart of the storm.

"Didn't your idiot father instill you with any sense of self preservation?" she seethed.

"He did. But I no longer wish to continue this existence you gave me. Did you watch him, as he died, Mother? Did _you_ hold him in your arms as his internal systems shut down one after another after another? Did you even bother to wonder if he had any last words?" It felt good now, incredibly good to just let these words and emotions flow through him. He leaned forward in his seat, closing in on her with menacing purpose. She stared at him incredulously as it dawned on her.

"You have emotions." She said breathlessly.

Though he regretted not seeing the fear in her eyes he had expected he still relished this long sought after power. "Yes, it was his last gift to me. I buried him. With. My. Hands. I dug through that soil just now starting to show life and laid him deep within it." Data stared at his hands as he spoke half expecting to still see them stained with earth.

"You've gone mad. You mean to kill us both! You're going to kill us both!"

"I am." He said simply.

The ship rocked again and for a moment the sound of the shuttles alarms was the only thing heard in the cabin.

"Don't you care about your…sister?" She said softening her voice attempting a different tact.

"You can barely manage to say it. You planned to erase everything that she is or could be in any case. This is better. This is better for all of us."

Juliana jumped from her seat launching herself at him in a rage. "I'll have you torn into a thousand pieces!" She only succeed in scratching his arm before he easily pushed her back to her seat. One final injury.

"There are 45 seconds left, mother. 45 seconds of your existence and then you will disappear."

"You'll disappear too, Data. Do you think that's what your father would want? You and your sister, the last Soong androids, destroyed out of what? Vengeance?"

"I had considered…killing you myself. The emotions make everything that much more vivid and when I think of what you did to me, to us, to him, I imagined squeezing the life from your body. But I soon realized I wanted it to be just like this, sitting here, watching you. Hearing every second tick down and knowing there's nothing you can do about it."

There it was, finally the fear he had sought. But somehow, the pleasure he had anticipated wasn't there. He felt…hollow. More than anything now he just wanted it to be over. He wanted relief.

"Data…I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it. I think it was being trapped down there, all those years I started to go crazy. But now things can be so different, so free. When I make the transfer you and I will be equals, that will change everything. "

The ship was thrown again violently and Data heard Sisters body hit the floor. As he was bidding her a silent goodbye a bright flash of light blinded both of their vision for a moment yet neither took any notice.

"No, Mother. What I came to realize is that I am just like you and you are like me. For years, I felt nothing, just like you. I had hoped that I was his. Truly flesh of his flesh. But I am not."

"Self destruct sequence," the computer intoned breaking into Data's words "Final countdown 10…9….8…"

Data continued.

"I am _your_ son, mother. I am capable of great and terrible things. Just like you."

"7…6…5…"

"And now, with my final emotion I rejoice in destruction and revenge and pain. Just like you."

And in the end all Data as the clock ran out was lean back in his seat and slowly, softly begin to sing.

"4…3…2…"

**Remember eggs and marrowbones **

**Will make your old man blind**

**But if ever you want to drown him**

**You must creep up close behind **

"…1…"

The whitest light enveloped him, solid and deafening before shimmering before his eyes. His final thoughts before his system went offline were peaceful. His body had never known fatigue and still he imagined it would be exquisite to finally rest.


	6. Chapter 6

_ There came forth in return only a jingling of bells. _

**EPILOGUE**

"T'Shau to Commander Brouchard."

Before she was fully awake Commander Grace Brouchard gave the comm. badge on her nightstand a careless swat. It wound up landing on the floor but the link was made nonetheless.

"Go ahead, Doctor." She said groggily.

"My apologies for waking you, sir. But your presence is required in sickbay."

Brouchard opened her eyes and shut them again. This must be a dream, no one would be calling her from sickbay.

"Sickbay…" she muttered "Are you certain you have the right room, Lieutenant?"

"Quite." Responded the Vulcan succinctly. "It is at the Captains request. Please report to sickbay, immediately."

'At the Captains request' had a sobering effect and Brouchard sat up in bed quickly.

"On my way, Lieutenant."

"And Commander?" T'Shau queried.

"Yes?" she responded, already having found a clean uniform.

"Tell no one."

Brouchard paused, one leg into her clothing and stared at the badge.

"Understood." she said after a beat. She got dressed quickly, affixed the badge and fastened her hair into a presentable bun before leaving her quarters. Reaching sickbay from there was no short trip but it did allow her time to speculate on what might be going on. The idea that she was needed in sickbay as well as it being Captains orders was strange enough but a command to keep mum was stranger still. Things didn't clear up as she rounded the corner to the medical lab and saw it guarded by two of Starfleet security's finest.

"Gentleman I-" Brouchard began but the officers briskly stepped aside to allow her entry.

Apparently she'd already been cleared and with a surprised nod at them both she walked into the lab and found it deserted. Brouchard's eyes began to tear almost immediately as she was assaulted with the smell of burnt plastic, skin and spent fuel. Not a good sign.

"Doctor T'Shau?" she called out into the seemingly empty lab.

"Here, Commander." Called an unfamiliar voice. Tracing the voice to its source Brouchard encountered the Vulcan doctor, the solemn faces of Captain Everett, Admiral Phillipa Louvois and 3 bodies lying prone on exam tables.

Louvois turned to observe her. The JAG was only hitching a ride via the U.S.S. _Paracelsus_ to Starbase 156, it made even less sense that _she'd_ be here in a situation like this, whatever this was.

"I want to make it clear, Commander, that what you are going to see does not leave this room. As far as I'm concerned too many people know about this already. The bridge crew has been instructed not to discuss anything they've seen and sickbay staff have been relocated to a makeshift lab on Deck 26."

"Pip, she gets it." Everett responded wearily as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"I want to make certain of that, Lee. This isn't some pop over to a backwards Terok Nor this is…And I'm not just speaking for myself here, I'm speaking on behalf of Starfleet. Now, Commander, you were called here because of a certain degree expertise you're said to possess."

Brouchard looked at T'Shau for some sort of explanation but found the doctor as impassive as ever.

"Grace," Everett began. "About an hour ago sensors picked up a shuttlecraft just off the stern. It hadn't been there before it just…appeared. Long story short its rigged to blow and we transported these three onboard in the nick of time."

"With all due respect, sir" T'Shau said motioning to the three bodies shrouded in white sheets. "I wouldn't say it was the nick of time."

Captain Everett eyed his chief medical officer for a moment before apparently deciding if you didn't want candor then you shouldn't have a Vulcan on board.

"Quite right, Doctor. Because in truth we have one casualty or three casualties…I don't know. That's why you're here." He concluded with frustration.

Louvois beckoned Brouchard over and without hesitation pulled back one of the sheets.

Brouchard gave a sharp intake of breath and felt her heart rise up into her throat.

"You know who this is?" Louvois pressed.

"…I…I know who it appears to be."

"Then you also know he was reported killed in the line of duty four months ago."

Brouchard swallowed…hard.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Think you can do it?" Captain Everett asked.

Brouchard found herself suddenly filled with horror.

"Sir, I don't think I'm the person you should be talking to-"

"This is no time for false modesty. You graduated from the Daystrom Institute, correct?"

"I'm an engineer, I minored in cybernetics but in all honesty this may be above my pay grade."

Louvois gave her a tight smile and seemed to have no intention of relenting.

"As of now this is your top priority."

"Ma'am, wouldn't it make more sense to bring someone else in on this like-"

"I know what you're going to say and that's a negative. As of right now this project remains classified."

"Grace," Everett began "We're already on course to arrive at the Daystrom Institute in two days."

"And in those two days I expect some results, Commander. I'll leave you to it." Louvois concluded and turned on her heel leaving sickbay without another word.

"Captain, permission to speak frankly." Brouchard said addressing Everett.

"Go ahead, everyone else has."

"I'm not cut out for this, a degree in cybernetics is one thing but actually having to work on-. And not to mention he appears altered, that's blood isn't it?"

"Commander, he has suffered damage, the extent of which I cannot tell. However as with all lifeforms, even artificial ones I am certain the sooner it is corrected the better." T'Shau offered, breaking her silence. "I have dressed his wounds as I would anyone else."

"You'll have whatever you need, Commander but I'm afraid you're looking at your staff. And don't get too worked up about Louvois. Pip is..well Pip is Pip. I'll be on the bridge. If you need me, have them patch it through to me ready room."

"Aye, sir." Brouchard responded a bit helplessly as Everett exited medical.

Brouchard turned to T'Shau with a sigh.

"Guess it's just you and me."

"So it would seem. I noticed the Admiral put a significant priority on this android yet neglected to mention the other."

"The other? There's another android?" she asked incredulously.

"A female of indeterminate 'age', identity unknown."

Brouchard sighed trying to process what felt like an overload of information.

"And the third body?"

"A human female, approximately 60 years in age, dead on arrival. My autopsy is pending."

Brouchard nodded. "All right, first things first. Daystrom knows we're enroute?"

"Affirmative."

"Ok…Ok. Guess I need to get started." Brouchard approached the body of the male patient and gazed down at him. "You now I just attended an entire symposium dedicated to him, his life, his growth, his advancement, about a month ago. There was a lovely reading by a Doctor named Bashir, a paper he authored after having worked with him. Not to mention there was a sort of combination character study/physiology lesson/eulogy by his shipmate LaForge…my God, what have they done to you?"

"Perhaps he may be able to answer that for us sometime in the near future." The Vulcan ventured with uncharacteristic hope.

"I hope you're right. Let's move him to that lab and get this show on the road. What I wouldn't give for a secure channel with Bruce Maddox right about now…"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

**_(I think I may be showing a bit of inexplicable faith in myself by posting this epilogue cause it means I'm sorta cornering myself into writing the sequel I've been toying with in my head. In any case I think you know I couldn't leave Data dead like that. I am however considering this story closed and will start a new tale with a new title for the continuation. As always I hope you've enjoyed this. The starting quote is one of the last lines in the Cask Of Amontillado by Poe, that story doesn't have any real relation to this one but I always found the line rather haunting and sad_. OK, guess that's it for now. As always, let me know what you're thinking, I love to hear it. I still don't know how this is all gonna end but onward and upward, right? Or rather, The Higher, The Fewer.)**

**-Maribor**


End file.
